Adult survivors of childhood cancer are more likely to never marry as compared to the general population, a new study claimed.

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine said that children who had suffered from cancer during childhood, are 20 to 25 per cent more likely to never get married later in life due to various factors like long-term physical effects of the disease and social implications, a new study claimed.

"Our findings suggest that in addition to the long-term physical effects of cancer, such as short stature, poor physical functioning and cognitive problems, social implications also exist," said member of Yale Cancer Center Nina Kadan-Lottick who led the study.

The team studied almost 9,000 adult survivors of childhood cancer participating in the multisit Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, medical journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention said.

They evaluated the frequency of marriage and divorce rates among survivors compared with their sibling groups in the US Census data. Participants completed mailed surveys every two to three years on their health and psychosocial status in an ongoing study.

Results showed that an estimated 42 per cent of survivors were married, 7.3 per cent were separated or divorced and 46 per cent were never married.

"Studies such as ours are important to understand how childhood cancer survivors function in our society," said Lottick.